Tees Valley tax.

[Inspector Knacker]

When the new Tees Valley authority gets going, will there be any chance of them adding a charge to our rates bill eventually. I don't fancy having my rates bill going up to feed the Boros ambitions.

[kevplumb]

would it really suprise you 

[Inspector Knacker]

Actually I'm expecting it to happen. Trouble is, these things were never  asked about prior to leaping into bed with the Tees Valley clique , or maybe they just hope no one will come up with awkward questions about things like this.

[SRMoore]

When the new Tees Valley authority gets going, will there be any chance of them adding a charge to our rates bill eventually. I don't fancy having my rates bill going up to feed the Boros ambitions.

They already tried.


Hidden in the small print of the Constitution for the Tees Valley Major was an option for the Mayor to add a 'Transport Precept' to our council tax to pay for transport projects within the Tees Valley [See A66 corridor]. This precept can be nodded through with nothing more than the agreement of the each council representative (CAB would be ours).

My worry was that if a Labour mayor was elected they would , with the unanimous backing of all Labour council leaders, not hesitate to implement this money grab without any way of it being blocked.

It was with this in mind that I put forward a motion to council (during the meeting in which the mayoral constitution was being 'debated) that if any such precept or levy be proposed by a TV Mayor then it MUST be brought before all Councillors of Hartlepool Borough Council to be scrutinised and voted upon before CAB could give the go ahead to tax us further.

What was interesting to note that night was that the vast majority of Labour councillors were not even aware of the levy, as was evident with James and half of the front bench flicking through their papers muttering "it doesn't say that anywhere!" .

Having backed them into a corner and getting this motion successfully through I/we [UKIP] voted to abstain because we could not vote in favour of a directly elected mayor system we oppose but could not vote against the important alteration we had made to the Constitution we knew would be passed by the Lab/Tor alliance.

So, Riddler I'd conclude by saying I hope that answers your question and I hope you'll now keep a closer eye on them. It may also explain the actual reason I voted to abstain on voting that evening.

[Steely Dan]

So UKIP councillors prove yet again that they're a waste of oxygen.

[Gustaf I of England + BWH]

Having backed them into a corner and getting this motion successfully through I/we [UKIP] voted to abstain because we could not vote in favour of a directly elected mayor system we oppose but could not vote against the important alteration we had made to the Constitution we knew would be passed by the Lab/Tor alliance.

There has to be some logic in there somewhere but I'm blowed if I can see it.
SRM - the two are not mutually exclusive. You vote against the directly elected mayor of Cleveland II, but have put in place the proviso that any vote for a Transport Precept has to be cleared by all Hartlepool councillors. You can have it both ways.
All abstaining does is prove that UKIP are developing the same warped logic that the Lab/Tor mob use - if you can call it logic.

[SRMoore]

You vote against the directly elected mayor of Cleveland II, but have put in place the proviso that any vote for a Transport Precept has to be cleared by all Hartlepool councillors.

There seems to be some confusion as to what was actually voted upon that night. Understandable since there has been a deliberate attempt to mislead.

We did not vote that evening to agree to have a Directly elected mayor for Teesside. Nor did we vote to have / not have a referendum on the subject. Unfortunately we had already gone way past that point, as explained by the chief solicitor to Cllr Riddle when he suggested we have a referendum on whether we have a DEM. CAB had already signed the deal months before so we were already fully signed up against our will at this point.

I will state at this point that at the time of a referendum on the issue being discussed by full council, the two UKIP councillors at the time did support giving the people a say on the issue.

I digress... Back to what we were actually there to vote on at that evening. Having established that we were already fully signed up whether we liked it or not, we were there that night to scrutinise the proposed constitution and powers that would be given to the Teesside Mayor. That is what I did!

If I hadn't spent my evenings trawling through the small print of the deal then it seems nobody else would have spotted this little stealth tax and it would have sailed through on the back of Tor/Lab votes giving us absolutely no way of scrutinising or blocking it.

As far as I'm concerned it is my job to first try and block the  s**t deals CAB and Co get us into but accept that once we are stuck with said deals we are able to hold them to account and get the best out of a s**t situation. Otherwise we just let them roll ahead unchecked.

[akarjl]

By abstaining?

[steveL]

Intrigued by SAB's decision to withdraw his resignation from his TV committee - has he heard of a new allowance?

One of the many, many aspects of this deal that have not been revealed or discussed openly. Personally, I'd be surprised if the turnout for this election breaks into double figures.

[Lord Elpus]

I'll be spoiling my ballot paper

[fred c]

DITTO.....It is the only option open to the people of Hartlepool after the hypocritical decision by C Akers Belcher & The LabTor coalition to refuse us a referendum.

[Inspector Knacker]

It was with this in mind that I put forward a motion to council (during the meeting in which the mayoral constitution was being 'debated) that if any such precept or levy be proposed by a TV Mayor then it MUST be brought before all Councillors of Hartlepool Borough Council to be scrutinised and voted upon before CAB could give the go ahead to tax us further.
Trouble with that point is that the sheep will vote as told to vote. Scrutiny is the last thing that shower would give it. I doubt most could even spell it never mind give a definition of it.
What was interesting to note that night was that the vast majority of Labour councillors were not even aware of the levy, as was evident with James and half of the front bench flicking through their papers muttering "it doesn't say that anywhere!" .
Of course they were unaware, there's no need to tell them anything, they are there to do as told to. The front bench are in a similar position to the minions, political ventriloquists.

[pieface]

Oh no we will be paying for those new bus signs to be replaced again or some of the no public service ones have the no removed!

[Inspector Knacker]

Transport projects in the Tees Valley means nothing at all for Hartlepool, the clue is in the use of the A66 corridor term that tells us everything we need to know.
Are our local 'delegates' to this pantomime so naive as to think we'll be included in anything apart from the paying cost ?
We were roped into this marriage of inconvenience to bring the numbers to bulk up the claim, that apart, Hartlepool is superfluous and can be safely ignored and will be.
Can anyone recall Clevelands idea for a metro type tram system in the early 80's and we had the Mail showing artists impressions ( sounds familiar) of a tram running in Church Square. Of course it never actually happened, but at the time it went through several evaluations till finally it was announced the Hartlepool section was a non starter for cost reasons, but in compensation we were told that bus tops would receive electronic displays for the time of the next bus....... even that never happened (If they had it would have been an energy saver today as most would have been turned off after 6pm)
Fact is the rest of Tessdie don't see us as a part of them, we have the relevance of a big housing estate somewhere to the North of them and have zero interest in us apart from our financial contribution to their empire building.

[no6bus]

Actually some bus stops do have the electronic displays fitted, mill house, Richie's, the hospital to name some